ed compliment to those
men to whom even new and extraordinary honours are justly due.

V. Shall the senate, according to this custom which has now obtained,
style a man imperator if he has slain a thousand or two of Spaniards,
or Gauls, or Thracians; and now that so many legions have been routed,
now that such a multitude of enemies has been slain,--aye, enemies,
I say, although our enemies within the city do not fancy this
expression,--shall we pay to our most illustrious generals the honour
of a supplication, and refuse them the name of imperator? For with
what great honour, and joy, and exultation ought the deliverers of
this city themselves to enter into this temple, when yesterday, on
account of the exploits which they have performed, the Roman people
carried me in an ovation, almost in a triumph from my house to the
Capitol, and back again from the Capitol to my own house? That is
indeed in my opinion a just and genuine triumph, when men who have
deserved well of the republic receive public testimony to their merits
from the unanimous consent of the senate. For if, at a time of general
rejoicing on the part of the Roman people, they addressed their
congratulations to one individual, that is a great proof of their
opinion of him; if they gave him thanks, that is a greater still; if
they did both, then nothing more honourable to him can be possibly
imagined.

Are you saying all this of yourself? some one will ask. It is indeed
against my will that I do so; but my indignation at injustice makes me
boastful, contrary to my usual habit. Is it not sufficient that thanks
should not be given to men who have well earned them, by men who are
ignorant of the very nature of virtue? And shall accusations and odium
be attempted to be excited against those men who devote all their
thoughts to ensuring the safety of the republic? For you well know
that there has been a common report for the last few days, that the
day before the wine feast,[55] that is to say, on this very day, I was
intending to come forth with the fasces as dictator. One would think
that this story was invented against some gladiator, or robber, or
Catiline, and not against a man who had prevented any such step from
ever being taken in the republic. Was I, who defeated and overthrew
and crushed Catiline, when he was attempting such wickedness, a likely
man myself all on a sudden to turn out Catiline? Under what auspices
could I, an augur, take those fasces? H